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D 525 
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' Oar combined armiea from now on will represent 
a league to enforce peace with justice. " 

-SECRETARY OF WAR BAKER. 



REFERENCE BOOK 
FOR SPEAKERS 



WIN THE WAR 

MAKE THE WORLD SAFE 

by the Defeat of 
German Militarism 

KEEP THE WORLD SAFE 
by a League of Nations 



Part I 

The Things Against Which We Are Fighting 

Part II 

The World For Which We Are Fighting 

Part III 

Keeping the World Safe 



Published by the 

LEAGUE TO ENFORCE PEACE 

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, President 
70 Fifth Avenue, New York 



-US'' 



^ 

THE LEAGUE'S RELATION 
TO THE WAR 



THE League to Enforce Peace is commit- 
ted in advance to the support of the war 
against Prussian Militarism. In June, 1915, 
it put forth a series of proposals advocating 
a permanent League of Nations, pledged to 
joint military action against an aggressive 
nation that refused to submit its dispute to 
arbitration. This policy the League has been 
urging steadily ever since. The United States 
has now become a member of what Secretary 
of War Baker has called "a league to enforce 
peace with justice." We are engaged with 
our Allies in precisely the kind of a war the 
League's programme holds to be both justifia- 
ble and necessary. Having advanced the prin- 
ciple of joint action against an aggressor, the 
League is bound to throw its moral support 
behind the war, and to give it all the material 
support that its widespread and powerful or- 
ganization can contribute. An organization 
so committed cannot do other than to insist 
that the war shall continue until Prussian 
Militarism is destroyed, either by Allied force 
or by the uprising of a German democracy, 
and a league of nations is established as a 
guarantee of permanent peace. 




Gin 

^ 5 wrs 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PAGE 



THE LEAGUE'S RELATION TO THE WAR . . i 

THE LEAGUE'S DUTY IN THE WAR .... 7 

THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WAR 

by William Howard Taft 9 



• Part I 

THE THINGS AGAINST WHICH WE ARE 
FIGHTING 

The Attempt to Conquer and Prussianize the 
World (from a speech by William Howard Taft, 
delivered at Montreal: September 26, IQ17) . . .13 

Fifty Years of Preparation 13 

Prussian Frightfulness 16 

German Intrig-ue 16 

Autocracy versus Democracy 17 

The Purpose of the War 18 

German Plots and Conspiracies in the United 
States {from an address by President Woodrozv 
Wilson, delivered at Washington: Flag Day, June 

14.' 1917) : . . 19 

3 



Conlriiis 



iiiiL wuKiA) 1 « »K WIIRH \\L ARE MGIITIXG 
Excerpts from President Wilson's State Papers 

A World in which Nationalities and Peoples. Small or 
(ireat. the (iennaii I'e ^ple Included, will l>e given 
Kcjual Rij^dit to Life. Lil)crty. and the Pursuit of 
Happiness 2 

A W urld ( )j)en to the Commerce of Every Nation : 
A Real "I'reedom of the Seas." and Freedom of 
Intcrcour»»e for the I-and 



-M 



A World Unthreatened bv Hostile Armies ami 
Navies ...'.... 



A World Pervaded by a New Spirit of I'rankness and 
Sincerity amon^ Nations, Comi)ellin|[j an Open. 
I'nselfish an<l Honest Diplomacy j6 

A World in which the Combined Force of all the 
Democratic Nations Guarantees the Freedom and 
Safety of Each 2S 



Part HI 

KKKPIXr, THE WORLD S\I-E 

Prkamble and Proposals of the Leaglk to Enforce 
Peaie 



3' 



A Brief Exposition of the League's Prourammk . . 33 
Economic Pressire as a Means to Prevent War . . 34 

4 



Contents 



PAGE 



Necessity for a League of Nations to Enforce 
Peace (from addresses and state papers of Presi- 
dent Wilson) 36 

Joint Guarantees of Peace 36 

A Constable to Keep the Peace 36 

A League of Nations 37 

A Disentangling Alliance 38 

A Monroe Doctrine for the World 38 

A Feasible Association of Nations 39 

A Just and Settled Peace 39 

America and the World 40 

Securing the Peace of the World 40 

A Declaration of Interdependence 41 

Nations To-day are Neighbors 41 

A Covenant of Cooperative Peace 42 

A League of Honor 44 

International Cooperation 46 

The Brotherhood of Mankind 46 

A Covenanted Peace 47 

European Statesmen Urge a League of Nations . 48 

David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Great Britain 48 

Herbert Asquith, Former Prime Minister .... 48 

Arthur James Balfour, Secretary for Foreign Affairs. 49 
Viscount Grey of Fallodon, Former Secretary for 

Foreign Affairs 50 

Andrew Bonar Law, Chancellor of the Exchequer . 52 

Earl Curzon, Lord President of the War Council . . 52 

Lord Robert Cecil, Minister of Blockade .... 52 

Arthur Henderson, Former Member of War Council . 53 

General Jan C. Smuts, Minister of Defense • • • 53 

Lord Northcliffe, British Editor 54 

Prof. Paul Painleve, Premier of France • • • • 55 

M. Alexandre Ribot, Former Premier of France . . 55 

5 



(^.ontrnts 

t «<.e 

M. Aristide Hriaml. Former Premier of France 55 

M. Rene X'iviani, F«)rmer Premier of France ... 56 
\nibassa<Ior Boris Bakhmetieff. Rii--i.in ninl<»matic 

Mission 56 

Prof. Paul Miliukoff, Former Riis>ian -\iini>tcr m 

I'oreijL^^n .\tTairs ^j 

St. AuLrusio Ciuflfelli. Member Italian War Mission . 57 

Hr. (iunnar Knudsen. Xorwei^Han Minister of State . 58 

His Holiness Pope P.enedict 58 

Governments Pleix^e Sri'iM)RT to a League of Na- 
tions (from official correspondence and resolutions) 59 

The Government of tlie I'nited States, in the Presi- 
dent's Identic Note to the lielli^erent Nations . 59 

I lie (lovcrnments of the Entente .Mlies. in a Joint 

l\cj)ly to the President of the United States . . 59 

Ihe British Government, in a Letter from the Foreig[Ti 
l^ccretary 60 

I he I'Vench Government, in a ParlianuMifru \ 

Resolution 'O 

i iu- Russian Government, in a Staiemeni ircin liie 

loreij.^n ( )t"hce . 60 

Ihe Swiss Government, in a Letter to the Leacifiie 

to Kn force Peace ^f 

The Spanish Government, in a Cablet^ram to the 

League to Enforce Peace (jj 

Bird.loGRAPIIV 63 



THE LEAGUE'S DUTY 
IN THE WAR 

THE supreme task before the country is that of con- 
serving its life and institutions by winning the war 
against Prussian Militarism. Equally necessary to 
the interests of humanity is the preventing in the future of 
just such assaults on the rights and liberties of the world as 
Germany is now making, thus rendering it virtually impos- 
sible for such a catastrophe as the present war to overwhelm 
us again. 

The League to Enforce Peace was organized and exists 
for the express purpose of securing a league of nations to 
prevent future war. The duty of winning this war is so 
urgent, however, that if the task of preventing such con- 
flicts in the future were not immediately and vitally con- 
nected with it, patriotic citizens would wish to let organi- 
zation against future wars wait while the whole attention 
and energy of the country were given to the business of 
conquering Germany. 

But there is as necessary and vital a connection between 
the stating of the great objective for the war and the win- 
ning of the war, as between the mind of a man and the body 
which the mind directs. A nation, like an individual, works 
at a task with all its might and enthusiasm only when it has 
a clearly defined and well understood reason for doing it. 
Hence the urgent necessity for recruiting the moral purpose 
of the American people for the war, and for inspiring en- 
thusiasm, self-devotion, and a willingness to sacrifice for it. 

7 



.4 lirfrrrncr Hook for Speakrrs 



Before a crusading spirit can gather behind a war, making 
the i)eo;)!c wilhng to sacrifice and (\\c for victory, some great 
simple issue must frame itself in the heart of the nation, and 
l>c heard on the lips of every citizen. Only as the war 
against (iermany is understood to l)e a world- st niggle to the 
death Ix-lweeii autocracy and democracy, will America rise 
in her full might to carr)' it t9 a successful issue and to con- 
serve the fruits of victor)* by some lasting union of the na- 
tions to enforce jK'ace. 

President Wilson understood this when he said that the 
war is l>eing fought to "make the world safe for democracy" 
l)y the establi>limenl and the iK-rpetualion of a league of 
nations to prevent aggression and to resist by arms the na- 
tion that commits agi^ression. An imix)rtant war-time duty 
of the Leaj^ue to Enforce Peace is to place and t«» keep in 
the hearts oi the American people this great end and ob'cct 
"f the war as the only iK)ssible com|>ensation for the most 
rostlv and trairic conflict in histon-. 



^ 



THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
OF THE WAR 

By William Howard Taft 

ENGLAND, France, Russia, Italy, and now the United 
States, as allies, are engaged in the greatest war of 
history to secure permanent world peace. With 
twenty or more millions of men at the colors, with losses in 
dead, wounded and captured of more than twenty-five per 
cent., with debts piling mountain-high and reaching many, 
many billions, they are fighting for a definite purpose, and 
that is the defeat of German militarism. 

If the Prussian military caste retains its power to control 
the military and foreign policy of Germany after the war, 
peace will not be permanent, and war will begin again when 
the chauvinistic advisers of the Hohenzollern dynasty deem 
a conquest and victory possible. 

The Allies have made a stupendous effort and have 
strained their utmost capacity. Unready for the war, they 
have concentrated their energy in preparation. In this im- 
portant respect they have defeated the plan of Germany "in 
shining armor" to crush her enemies in their unreadiness. 

But the war has not been won. Germany is in possession 
of Belgium and part of northern France. She holds Serbia 
and Rumania, Poland and the Baltic Provinces of Russia. 
Peace now, even though it be made on the basis of the resto- 
ration of the status quo, "without indemnities and without 
annexations," would.be a failure to achieve the great pur- 

9 



.4 Reference Book for Speakers 



l>ose for which the Allies have made heartrending sacrifice. 
Arniainents would cr)ntinue for the next war. and this war 
would have l)cen fouj^ht in vain. The millions of lives lost 
and the hundreds of billions* worth of the product of men's 
lal)or. would \)c wasted. 

He who proposes peace now, therefore, cither does not 
see the stake for which the Allies are fighting, or wishes the 
Gcnnan military autocracy still to control the destinies of 
all of us as to jKrace or war. Those who favor permanent 
world |)eace must oppose with might and main the proposals 
for jjeace at this juncture in the war. 

The Allies arc fighting for a principle the maintenance 
of which affects the future of civilization. If they do not 
achieve it they have sacrificed the flower of their youth and 
mortgaged their future for a century, and all for nothing. 

This is not a war in which the stake is territory or the 
sphere of influence of one nation over another. The Allies 
cannot concede peace until they concjuer it. When they do 
so, it will be permanent. Otherwise they fail. 

There are wars like that between Japan and Russia, in 
which President RfK>sevelt properly and successfully inter- 
vened to bring about a {)eace that heli)ed the parties to a 
settlement. The priiuiple at stake and the power and terri- 
tory were of such a character that a settlement might l)e 
made substantially permanent. Rut the present is.sue is like 
that in our Civil War, which was whether the Union was to 
be preserved and the cancer of slavery was to be cut out. 
Peace proposals to President Lincoln were quite as numer- 
ous as those of to-day. and were moved by quite as high 
motives. Hut there was no compromise fx^ssible. Slavery 
and disunion either lost or won. So to-day the great moral 
object of the war must be achieved or defeated. 



10 



PART I 

THE THINGS AGAINST WHICH 
WE ARE FIGHTING 



THE THINGS AGAINST WHICH 
WE ARE FIGHTING 

THE ATTEMPT TO CONQUER AND 
PRUSSIANIZE THE WORLD 

By William Howard Taft 



FIFTY YEARS OF Under the first William, with his 

PREPARATION TO Prime Minister Bismarck, who 

CONQUER THE WORLD ^^"^^ ^o power in 1862, a definite 

plan was adopted of perfecting the 
already well-disciplined Prussian army so that by '*blood and 
iron" the unity of Germany should be achieved. The whole 
Prussian nation was made into an army, and it soon became 
a machine with a power of conquest equaled by no other. 
The cynical, unscrupulous, but efifective, diplomacy of Bis- 
marck first united Prussia with Austria to deprive Denmark 
of Schleswig-Holstein by force, then secured a quarrel with 
Austria over the spoils, and deprived her of all influence over 
the German states by humiliating defeat in the six weeks' 
war of 1866. After this war, several German states were 
annexed forcibly to Prussia and offensive and defensive 
alliances were made with others. 

Then in 1870 the occasion was seized, when it was known 
that France was not prepared, to strike at her. France was 
beaten, and Alsace and Lorraine were taken from her. The 
German Empire was established with a Prussian King at its 
head. France was made to pay an indemnity of one billion 
dollars, with which the military machine of Germany was 
strengthened and improved. Then Germany settled down 

13 



A Reference Hook for Speakers 



to a iK-riod of peace to digest the territory which by these 
three wars haci Ik^cii ahsorlK-d. Bismarck's purfxise in main- 
laining the suiK'riority of his army was to retain what had 
l)een taken by l)Io<>d and iron, and at the same time by a 
l>erio(l of prolonged |)eace to give to (iermany a full opjKjr- 
tiinity for industrial develo|)ment and the self-discipline nec- 
essary for the highest etticiency. And then, as the success 
of the (ierman system in the material development of the 
Kmpire showed itself and became the admiration of the 
world, the destiny of ( iermany grew larger in the eyes of her 
Em|K*ror and her people, and expaiuled into a dream of 
Germanizing the world. The (Jerman i)eople were imi)reg- 
nated with this idea by every method of otVicial instruction. 
.\ cult of j)hilosophy to spread the propaganda develo|x*d 
it.self in the universities and schools. The principle was that 
the state could do no wrong, that the state was an entity 
that must be sustained by force : that everything else must be 
sacrificed to its strength ; that the only sin the state could 
commit was neglect and failure to maintain its power. 

W ith that dogmatic K)gic which pleases the (ierman min<l. 
and to which it readily adapts itself, this proposition easily 
led into the further conclusion that there could Ik* no inter- 
national morality ; that morality and its principles applied 
only to individuals, but that when the action of the state was 
involved, considerations of honor, of the preservation of 
obligations solemnly made, must yield if the interests of 
the state re(|uired. These were the principles taught by 
Treitschke in the University of P>erlin and maintained by 
(ierman econ«»inic pliil<>so])hers and by the representatives of 
the military regime in Hernhardi. 

Bismarck had l)cen keen enough in his diplomacy to await 
the op|)ortunity that events presented for seeming to 1)C 
force<l into a war which he had long planned. This was the 
case with Denmark. This was the case with Austria. This 
was the case with h'rance. ( ierman diplomacy has lost noth- 
ing of this characteristic in the present war. (iermany did 
not i)lan the killing of the Austrian Archduke and his con- 
.sort, but the minute that that presented the likelihood of 
war. (iermany accepted it as the opportunity for her to 
strike down licr neighbors, Russia and France, and to en- 

14 



The Things Against Which We Are Fighting 

large her power. She gladly gave her consent to the ulti- 
matum of Austria to Serbia that was sure to bring on war, 
and then posed as one driven into war by the mobilization 
of Russia. 

She knew that Russia was utterly unprepared. She knew 
that France was unprepared. She knew that Great Britain 
was unprepared. She herself was ready to the last cannon 
and the last reservist. Therefore, when appealed to by Great 
Britain and by all the other Powers to intervene and prevent 
Austria from forcing a universal war, Germany declined to 
act. Not a telegram or communication between Germany 
and Austria has ever been given to the public to show the 
slightest effort to induce delay by Austria. While Germany 
would pose as having acted only as Austria's ally and as 
unwilling to influence her against her interest and indepen- 
dent judgment, the verdict of history unquestionably will be 
that the war is due to Germany's failure to prevent it and to 
her desire to accept the opportunity of the assassination of 
the Austrian Archduke as a convenient time to begin a war 
she long intended. The revelation of their unpreparedness 
is sufficient to show that England, France and Russia did not 
conspire to bring the war on. On the other hand, before the 
war began Germany had constructed a complete system of 
strategic railways on her Belgian border, adapted not to 
commercial uses, but only to the quick invasion of Belgium. 

Indeed, every fact as the war has developed forms one 
more circumstance in the irrefragable case against Germany 
as the Power responsible for this world disaster. The 
preparation of fifty years, the false philosophy of her des- 
tiny and of the exaltation of force, had given her a yearning 
for conquest, for the expansion of her territory, the exten- 
sion of her influence, and the Germanization of the world. 
She alone is responsible for the incalculable destruction of 
this war. She led on in the armament of the world that she 
might rule it. She promoted therefore the armament of 
other nations. Her system was followed, though not as 
eft'ectively, by other countries in pure defense of their peace 
and safety. 

And now her Emperor, her Prussian military caste, and 
her wonderful but blinded people, have the blood of the 

15 



A Reference Hook for Speakers 



millions who have sufteretl in this world catastrophe on their 

hands. 

nf>. ,ce. » .., The Ciemian military (icKtrinc, that when 

FRIGHTFULNESS interests of the state are concerned, 

the cjuestion is one of jxiwer and force, 
and not of honor or obligation or moral restfaint. finds its 
most flagrant examples in ( icrmany's conduct of this war. 

Her hrcach of a solemn ohlijijation entered into by her anjl 
all the Powers of I-'urope. in respect to I'lelt^ium's neutrality, 
was its first exhibition. It was followed by the well proven. 
deIilR*rate |)lan of atrcK'itics ajjainst the men. women and 
children of a part of Heljjium in order to terrorize the rest 
of the population into complete submission. It was shown 
in the pronij)! droppinjj of bombs on defenseless towns from 
Zep|)elins and other aircraft ; in the killing of non-combatant 
men. women and children by the naval boml)ardment of un- 
fortified towns; in the use of li(jui(l fire and jK>ison jjases in 
battle. All of these had been condemned as impro|)cr in 
declarations in the iiajjue treaties. 

r^roiuiKKs ' '^^ Reptile Fund, which wa<; u^^cd un<lcr Bis- 
INTRIGUE "'•"■^'^ '**'" t"e l)nbery of the press and for the 
maintenance of a spy system, has iK^en enlarged 
and eUiborated. so that (ierman brilK.*ry has e.xtended the 
world over, and the (ierman espionage has exceeded aiiy- 
iliini; known to history. The medieval use by the Hohen- 
zollerns of dynastic kinship has paralyzed the action of the 
I)eoples of (ireece and Russia. .Xnd now we know, by recent 
revelation, of the aid that Swedish diplomats arc furnishinjj 
to (iermany in her sulniiarine warfare aj^ainst neutral ships, 
and that it is made |H)ssible by the influence of the (icnnan 
consort of the Swedish Kin;^. 

Intrij^ie. dishonor, cruelty, have characterized the entire 
military ix)licy of (iermany. The rules of international law 
have l)een cast to the winds. The murderous >ubmarine has 
sunk without warninjj the non-combatant commercial vessels 
of the enemy and sent their otlicers. their crews and their 
passengers, men. women and children, to the l>ottom without 
warning. Not only has this |)olicy l)een pursued against 
enemy commercial vessels, but also against neutral coinmcr- 

i6 



The Things Against Which We Are Fighting 

cial vessels, and parts of the crew have been assembled on 
the submarine and then the submarine has been submerged 
and the victims left struggling in the ocean's waste to drown. 
We find a German diplomat telegraphing from a neutral port 
to the German headquarters advising that if the submarine 
be used against the vessels of that neutral Power it leave no 
trace of the attack. In other words, the murder of the crews 
must be complete, because "dead men tell no tales." 

Having violated the neutrality of Belgium, having broken 
its sacred obligations to that country and her people, it is 
now enslaving them by taking them from Belgium and en- 
forcing their labor in Germany. This is contrary to every 
rule of international law, and is in the teeth of the plainest 
principles of justice and honor. All these things are done 
for the state. It is not that the nature of the German people 
generally is cruel — that is not the case. But the minds of the 
German people have been poisoned with this false philos- 
ophy; and the ruling caste in Germany, in its desperate 
desire to win, has allowed no consideration of humanity or 
decency or honor to prevent its use of any means which in 
any way could by hook or crook accomplish a military pur- 
pose. 

When the war began, Germany was able to 
Aunji^KAL,! convince her people and to convince many 
DEMOCRACY ^^ ^^^ world that the issue in the war was 
not the exaltation of the military power of 
Germany and the expanding of her plan of destiny, but that 
it was a mere controversy between the Teuton and the Slav, 
and Germany asked with great plausibility, "Will you have 
the world controlled by the Slav or by the German ?" Those 
who insisted that the issue was one of militarism against the 
peace of the world, of democracy against military autocracy, 
of freedom against military tyranny, were met with the 
argument, "Russia is an ally. She is a greater despotism 
and a greater military autocracy than Germany." As the 
war wore on, the real issue was cleared of this confusion. 
Russia became a democracy. The fight was between govern- 
ments directed by their people on the one hand, and the 
military dynasties of Germany, Austria, and Turkey, on the 
other. 

17 



I Reference Bonk for Speakers 



THE PURPOSE ^'resident Wilson says the Allies are fight- 
OF THF WAR '"^ ^** niakc the world safe for (icmocracv. 
Some iniso>iKc|)lion has lK*cn created on 
this hea<l. i he AUies are not slrnj(Kl'"K l^^ force a particular 
fomi of government nn (iermany. \( the ( ierman people 
continue to wish an lun|>eror it is not the |)ur|)Osc of the 
Allies to re(|uirc them to have a republic. Their pur|M)se is 
to end the military policy and foreii^n |)olicy of (iermany 
that looks to the maintenance of a military and naval ma- 
chine, with its hair-irigjjer preparation for use against her 
neighlMjrs. If this continues, it will entail on every demo- 
cratic government the <luty of maintaining a similar arma- 
ment in self-(|efcnse. or. wlial i> more likely, the duly will Ik* 
wholly or jiartly neglected. Thus the iKjIicy of (iermany. 
with her purpose and destiny, will threaten every demoiTacy. 
This is the condition which it is the determined purpose of 
the Allies, as interprete<l by President W ilson. to change. 

How is the change to l)c elTected ? By defeating (iermany 
in this war. The (ierman j)eopIe have l)een very loyal to 
their l'!m|>eror. iK-cause his leadership accords with the false 
philosophy of the state and ( iennan destiny, with which they 
have been imlcKtrinated and poisoned. A <Iefcat of the 
military machine, a defeat of the hVankenstein of the mili- 
tary dynasty to which they have lK*en sacrificed, must o|)en 
their eyes to the hideous futility of their political course. 
The (iennan (iovernment will then Ih! changed as its people 
will have it change<l. to avoid a recurrence of such a tragedy 
as they have delil)erately prepared f(»r themselves. 

Men who ^ee clearly the kind of peace which we must 
have, in order to In- a real an<l lasting |)eace. can have no 
sympathy therefore with a |)atched-up |)eace. one made at a 
council table, the result of diplomatic chatTering and bargain- 
ing. Men wlio look forward to a League of the World to 
Enforce Peace in the future can have no patience with a 
comj)romise that leaves the promoting cause of the present 
awful war unafTectetl and imremoved. This war is now 
l)eing !(»ught by the .\llies as a League to ICnforce Peace. 
I'nless they comind it by victory, they do not enforce it. 
They do not make the military autcxracies of the world into 
nations fit for a W Orld League, unless they coi.vincc them 
by a lesson of (kfcat 

iS 



The Things Against Which We Are Fighting 



GERMAN PLOTS AND CONSPIRACIES 
IN THE UNITED STATES 

{From President Wilson's Flag-Day Address 
delivered at Washington: June 14, igiy) 

It IS plain enough how we were forced into the war The 
extraordinary insults and aggressions of the Imperial Ger- 
man Government left us no self-respecting choice but to take 
up arms in defense of our rights as a free people and of our 
honor as a sovereign government. The military masters of 
Germany denied us the right to be neutral. They filled our 
unsuspecting communities with vicious spies and conspira- 
tors and sought to corrupt the opinion of our people in their 
own behalf. When they found that they could not do that, 
their agents diligently spread sedition amongst us and sought 
to draw our own citizens from their allegiance —and some 
of those agents were men connected with the official Em- 
bassy of the German Government itself here in our own 
capital. They sought by violence to destroy our industries 
and arrest our commerce. They tried to incite Mexico to 
take up arms against us and to draw Japan into a hostile 
alliance with her,— and that, not by indirection, but by direct 
suggestion from the Foreign Office in Berlin. They impu- 
dently denied us the use of the high seas and repeatedly 
executed their threat that they would send to their death any 
of our people who ventured to approach the coasts of Eu- 
rope. And many of our own people were corrupted Men 
began to look upon their own neighbors with suspicion and 
to wonder m their hot resentment and surprise whether 
there was any community in which hostile intrigue did not 
lurk. What great nation in such circumstances would not 
have taken up arms ? Much as we had desired peace, it was 
denied us, and not of our own choice. This flag under which 
we serve would have been dishonored had we withheld our 
hand. 



19 



PART II 

THE WORLD FOR WHICH WE 
ARE FIGHTING 



THE WORLD FOR WHICH WE 
ARE FIGHTING 

{Excerpts from President Wilsons State Papers) 
A World in which Nationalities and Peoples, Small 
OR Great, the German People Included, will be 
GIVEN Equal Right to Life. Liberty, and the Pur- 
suit OF Happiness 

The American people . . . believe that peace should rest 
upon the rights of peoples, not the rights of Governments 
—the rights of peoples great or small, weak or powerful— 
their equal right to freedom and security and self-govern- 
ment and to a participation upon fair terms in the economic 
opportunities of the world, the German people of course 
included if they will accept equality and not seek domination. 

VVe believe that the intolerable wrongs done in this war by 
the furious and brutal power of the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment ought to be repaired, but not at the expense of the 
sovereignty of any people— rather a vindication of the sov- 
ereignty both of those that are weak and of those that are 
strong. Punitive damages, the dismemberment of empires 
the establishment of selfish and exclusive economic leagues, 
we deem inexpedient and in the end worse than futile, no 
proper basis for a peace of any kind, least of all for an 
enduring peace. That must be based upon justice and fair- 
ness and the common* rights of mankind. 

(From the reply to Pope Benedicfs identic letter to 
the belligerent governments: August 2j, i^iy) 

^ No peace can last, or ought to last, which does not recog- 
nize and accept the principle that governments derive all 

23 



A Reference Book for Speakers 



their just powers from the consent of the jjovemed. and 
that no ri;,'lit anywhere exists to hand [Kjoplcs about from 
soverci.L^nty to sovcrcij^nty as if tlicy were pro|>erty. 

1 take it for j,'rante<l. ft)r in>tancc. if I may venture u\Mm 
a sinj^Ie exan)j)le. that statesmen everywhere are aj^reed 
that tliere shouhl be a unite<l. inilepen<lent. and autonomous 
Poland, and that henceforth inviolable security of life, of 
worship, and of industrial and Mnrial development should be 
guaranteed to all |)eoples who have lived hitherto under the 
|K)\ver of j^overnments devoted to a failli and purj)ose hos- 
tile to their own. 

Any inrace which does not recognize and accept this prin- 
ciple will inevitably be upset. It will not rest ujxin the 
affections or the convictions of mankind. The ferment of 
pirit of whole iK)pulations will fi^ht subtly and constantly 
aj^ainst it, and all the world will sympathize. The world 
can be at j>eace only if its life is stable, and there can be no 
stability where the will is in rebellion, where there is not 
tran<|uillity of spirit and a sense of justice, of free<lom. and 
of rij^ht 

( /'rdu: inc lUid'i.ss ii> tlicSciuitc: January jj, lijij) 



A \\'oRi-D Open to thk Com-miikce of Every X.\tion : A 

Re.XL '*FkEElX)M OF THK SeAS." AND FREEDOM OF INTER- 
COURSE FOR THE Land 

So far as practica!)le. moreover, every great in(»pK- lu'w 
slruj^'j^hng towards a full development of its resources and 
of its powers should Ik.* assured a direct outlet to the preat 
highways of the sea. W here this cannot be done by the 
( ession of territory, it can no doubt Ik* done l)y the neutral- 
ization of direct rights of way under the general gitarantee 
which will assure the ikmcc itself. With a right comity of 
arrangement no nation need l)e shut away from free access 
to the o|)en paths of t!ic world's commerce. 

(From the address to the Senate: January JJ, iQt/) 

24 






The World for Which We Are Fighting 



A World Unthreatened by Hostile 
Armies and Navies 

It (the freedom of the seas) is a problem closely con- 
nected with the limitation of naval armaments and the co- 
operation of the navies of the world in keeping the seas at 
once free and safe. And the question of limiting naval 
armaments opens the wider and perhaps more difficult ques- 
tion of the limitation of armies and of all programmes of 
military preparation. 

Difficult and delicate as these questions are, they must be 
faced with the utmost candor and decided in a spirit of real 
accommodation if peace is to come with healing in its wings, 
and come to stay. Peace cannot be had without concession 
and sacrifice. There can be no sense of safety and equality 
among the nations if great preponderating armaments are 
henceforth to continue here and there to be built up and 
maintained. 

The statesmen of the world must plan for peace and na- 
tions must adjust and accommodate their policy to it as they 
have planned for war and made ready for pitiless contest 
and rivalry. The question of armaments, whether on land 
or sea, is the most immediately and intensely practical ques- 
tion connected with the future fortunes of nations and of 
mankind. 

(From the address to the Senate: January 22, igi'/) 



The object of this war is to deliver the free peoples of the 
world from the menace and the actual power of a vast 
military establishment controlled by an irresponsible gov- 
ernment which, having secretly planned to dominate the 
world, proceeded to carry the plan out without regard either 
to the sacred obligations of treaty or the long-established 
practices and long-cherished principles of international ac- 
tion and honor; which chose its own time for the war; de- 
livered its blow fiercely and suddenly ; stopped at no barrier 
either of law or of mercy; swept a whole continent within 

25 



A Reference Book for Speakers 



the tide of blood— not the blood of soldiers only, but the 
blood of innocent women and chiUlrcn also and of the help- 
less jxx)r; and now stands balked but not <letcatcd. the enemy 
of four-fifths of the world. This fK)wer is not tlie (ierman 
people. It is the ruthless master of the (ierman i)eople. It 
is no business of ours how that j^'reat i)eople came under its 
control or submitted with temporary zest to the domination 
of its purix)se; but it is our Imsincss to see to it that the 
history of the rest of the world is no Ioniser left to its 
handlini;. 

(From the reply to Pope Benedict's peace 
proposal: .tujiust -?7. /0/7) 



The facts are patent to all the world, and nowhere are 
ihey more plainly seen than in the United .Stales, where we 
are accustomed to deal with facts and not with sophistries; 
and the great fact that stands out above all the rest is that 
this is a Peoples' War, a war for freedom and justice and 
self-jjo\ eminent amongst all the nations of the world, a war 
to make the world safe for the peoples who live u\Km it and 
have made it their own. the (ierman iK'ople themselves in- 
cluded : and that with us rests the choice to break through 
all these hypocrisies and patent cheats and masks of bmte 
force and help set the world free, or else stand aside anci let 
it l)e dominated a long age through by sheer weight of arms 
and the arbitrary choices of self-constituted masters. 
(from the f-la(j-Pay speech at Washimjtou: 
Junc'14, J^i/) 



A World Pervaded nv .\ New Spirit of Fr.xnkness and 
Sincerity among X.ations, Compelling an Open, 
Unselfish and Honest Dipi-c3.macy 

I am proposing, as it were, that the nations should with 
one accord adopt the dcKtrine of President Monroe as the 
doctrine of the world: that no nation should seek to extend 

2^) 



The World for Which We Are Fighting 

its policy over any other nation or people, but that every peo- 
ple should be left free to determine its own policy, its own 
way of development, unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, 
the little along with the great and powerful. 

(From the address to the Senate: January 22, i^iy) 



Self'governed nations do not fill their neighbor states with 
spies or set the course of intrigue to bring about some criti- 
cal posture of affairs which will give them an opportunity 
to strike and make conquest. Such designs can be success- 
fully worked only under cover and where no one has the 
right to ask questions. 

Cunningly contrived plans of deception or aggression, car- 
ried, it may be, from generation to generation, can be worked 
out and kept from the light only within the privacy of courts 
or behind the carefully guarded confidences of a narrow 
and privileged class. They are happily impossible where 
public opinion commands and insists upon full information 
concerning all the nation's affairs. 

One of the things that has served to convince us that the 
Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our friend 
is that from the very outset of the present war it has filled 
our unsuspecting communities and even our offices of gov- 
ernment with spies and set criminal intrigues everywhere 
afoot against our national unity of counsel, our peace within 
and without, our industries and our commerce. 

{From the message to Congress: April 2, ipiy) 



The test, therefore, of every plan of peace is this : Is it 
based upon the faith of all the peoples involved or merely 
upon the word of an ambitious and intriguing government 
on the one hand and of a group of free peoples on the other? 
This is a test which goes to the root of the matter; and it is 
the test which must be applied. . . . 

We cannot take the word of the present rulers of Ger- 
many as a guarantee of anything that is to endure, unless 
explicitly supported by such conclusive evidence of the will 

27 



A Reference Hook for Speakers 



and purjKjsc of the Cicrman |>eop!c themselves as the other 
|)eopIes of the world would l>e justified in accepting. W'ith- 
out such j^uarantees, treaties of settlement, aj^reements for 
• lisarmament. covenants to set up arbitration in the place of 
force, territorial adjustments, reconstitutions of small na- 
tions, if made with the ( iemian (iovernment. no man. uo 
nation, could now de|>end on. We must await some new 
cviilence of the purix)ses of the j^reat |)euples of the Central 
l'ower>. G(h\ prant it may he j^iven soon and in a way to 
restore the confidence of all jHroples everywhere in the faith 
of nations and the |)OSsil)ility of a covenanted |>eace. 
{I-rom the reply to Pope Benedict's identic letter to 
the belligerent (jcn'ernments: August Jj, loij) 



A \\<>UI.I) IN Wllh II I ill 1 OMr.lMI) ioK< 1. Ml MI im 

Dkmocratr- Nations CJuarantkks tiik rRKKiK)M and 
Safety of Each 

We arc j^lad. now that we see the fact<^ with no veil of 
false pretense about them, to lijjht thus for the ultimate 
I>eace of the world and for the lilK-ralion of its |)coples, the 
< ierman people included : for the rijjhts of nations j^reat and 
>mall an<l the privilejje of men everywhere to choose their 
way of life and of obedience. The world must W made safe 
for dcnuKTacy. Its peace must be j)lanlcd upon the tested 
foundations of political liberty. 

A stca<lfast concert for peace can never \>c maintained 
except by a j)artner^hii) of democratic nations. Xo auto- 
cratic government could be trusted to kee|) faith within it 
or observe its covenants. It must l>e a league of honor, a 
partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals away; 
the plottings of inner circles who could plan what they 
wouKI an<l render account to no one wouKl l>e a corniption 
sealed at its very heart. ( )nly free fK-oples can hold their 
purpose and their honcir steady to a common end and prefer 
the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of their own. 
{Prom the tnessat^c to Congress: April 2, Jpi/) 
2S 



PART III 
KEEPING THE WORLD SAFE 



KEEPING THE WORLD SAFE 

THE PREAMBLE AND PROPOSALS OF THE 
LEAGUE TO ENFORCE PEACE 

Adopted at the Organization Meeting held in Inde- 
pendence Hall, Philadelphia: June ij, ipi^ 

THE WARRANT Throughout five thousand years of re- 
FROM HISTORY corded history, peace, here and there es- 
tabhshed, has been kept, and its area has 
been widened, in one way only. Individuals have combined 
their efforts to suppress violence in the local community. 
Communities have cooperated to maintain the authoritative 
state and to preserve peace within its borders. States have 
formed leagues or confederations or have otherwise cooper- 
ated to establish peace among themselves. Always peace has 
been made and kept, when made and kept at all, by the 
superior power of superior numbers acting in unity for the 
common good. 

Mindful of this teaching of experience, we believe and 
solemnly urge that the time has come to devise and to create 
a working union of sovereign nations to establish peace 
among themselves and to guarantee it by all known and 
available sanctions at their command, to the end that civiliza- 
tion may be conserved, and the progress of mankind in com- 
fort, enlightenment and happiness may continue. 

THE ^^ believe it to be desirable for the United 

PROPOSALS* States to join a league of nations binding 

the signatories to the following: 
First: All justiciable questions arising between the signatory 
powers, not settled by negotiation, shall, subject to the 

* These proposals were put forward by the Independence Hall Conference as 
pointing out the road along which the nations must sooner or later travel in 
their efforts to establish a just and stable peace, and not as a complete and final 
plan. The representatives of the nations assembled to draw up a treaty which 
should establish a League to Enforce Peace would no doubt modify them. They 
might not be willing to go so far as is here proposed; they might wish to go 
much farther, and to provide for a more complete form of world governmenl 
than is now suggested. 

31 



A Hcfcrencc 1Un)U for Speakers 



limitations of treaties, be submitted to a judicial tribunal 
for hearinjj and judgment. Ixith u|M)n the merits and upon 
any issue as to its jurisdiction of ilic (jucstion. 

Second: All other questions arising l>et\veen the signatories 
and not settled by negotiation, shall be submitted to a 
council of conciliation for hearing, consideration and rec- 
ommendation. 

Third: Ihe signatory i)o\vers shall jointly use forthwith both 
their economic and military forces against any one of their 
numl)er that goes to war. or commits acts of hostility, 
against another of the signatories l)efore any question 
arising shall be submitted as provided in the foregoing. 

Thi' folloxcing inter prt'tation of Article 3 has been author* 
iced by the lixfiutne Committee: 

"The sigii.itory powers shall jointly employ diplomatic and 

economic pressure against any <ine of their number that 

threatens war a^inst a fellow signatory without havnig first 

Milimittcd Its dispute for international inquiry, conciliation. 

arl»iirati<»n or judicial hearing, and awaited a conclusion, or 

V. •' -ut having offered so i() submit it Thev shall follow this 

with by tlie joint use of their military lorces against that 

ti if It actually g(x's to war. or commits acts of hostility, 

nst aiK'ther of the sigriatones before any question arising 

. i be dealt with as provided in the foregoing." 

Fourth: Conferences between the signatory powers shall be 

held from time to time to formulate and codify rules of 
international law. which, unless some signatory shall sig- 
nify its dissent within a stated i)eriotl. shall thereafter 
govern in the de« isidiis <.f the judicial tribunal mentioned 
in Article One. 



32 



Keeping the World Safe 



A BRIEF EXPOSITION OF THE 
LEAGUE'S PROGRAMME 

Briefly, it is proposed that a League of Nations, including 
the United States, be created at the end of the present war. 
An invitation to join the League would probably be extended 
to all civilized and progressive nations. A general treaty 
would be signed, by the terms of which the member-nations 
would mutually agree to submit to public hearing any and 
all disputes which might arise among them. Such an agree- 
ment would not apply to quarrels of a purely national char- 
acter and would not, therefore, interfere with insurrections 
or prevent revolutions. 

To carry out the programme it would become necessary to 
set up two international tribunals : a Judicial Court for the 
purpose of hearing and deciding those questions that can be 
determined by the established and accepted rules of inter- 
national law and equity ; and a Council of Conciliation for 
the purpose of composing, by compromise, all other ques- 
tions that come up which, unless settled, would be likely to 
lead to war. A peaceful way would thus be provided to 
change unjust conditions, however arising. The Court, 
after preliminary inquiry, would determine before which 
tribunal a given case would go. 

In the event of any member-nation threatening war 
against any other member-nation, without first submitting 
its quarrel to public review and report, all the other nations 
who are members of the League would immediately join in 
bringing to bear both diplomatic and economic pressure to 
stop the would-be aggressor. If, after this joint protest, it 
persisted with overt acts of hostility and actually com- 
menced war, then the other member-nations, with their com- 
bined military and naval forces, would come to the defense 
of the one attacked. It is confidently expected that the ac- 
ceptance and operation of the programme would result in the 
gradual reduction of armaments, — if indeed a specific agree- 
ment to reduce armaments were not made one of the essen- 
tial terms of the treaty creating the League of Nations. 

33 



,1 Reference linnk for Speakers 



The military forces of the League would be used to comi>el 
submission (j»f matters in tlisputc to a Court of Incjuiry l>e- 
fore any war* was Inrj^un by any mcm!)er. It is believed that 
the projciit^'e*! i)ost|M»nenienl. plus the public discussion, plus 
the justice of the <leci>ion or award, would tend to ensure 
acceptance in the va^t majority of cases. 

Tlie progranune lK.-{jins witli a proi)osal which is substan- 
tially the same as the essential provision in the arbitration 
treaties which have U'en sij^e<l between the United States 
and some thirty nations, viz.: to submit all questions to a 
public hearin;,' and to delay hostilities for a year or more. 
The programme also makes provision for holdinjj legislative 
assemblies or conferences from time to time, similar to those 
held at The liaj^aie in iS</) and \^f>7, for the pur|K)se of 
broadening and clarifying the rules of international law. 
which shall by nuitual agreement govern in the decisions of 
the International Court. To these provisions the programme 
adds what the lawyers call a "sanction." to com(>el and en- 
force the main provision. It is this g^uarantee of interna- 
ti«»nal agreements by the joint force of the nations that 
really cjin.stitutes the tlistincti\e mark of the progranune of 
the League. 



HCONo.MlC i'RRSSURL AS .\ MEANS 
TO PREVENT W \K 

{Prom a Rcf'ort of tho Sf*ccial Committee Ap- 
pointed by the Chamber of Commerce of the United 
States to consider Economic Results of the War and 
American Hnsiness. This Recommendation was 
Endorsed by a Tieo-thirds I'ote of the aVj Com- 
mercial Ori^anications Constitutini^ the Member- 
ship of the Chamber ) 
Just as, within the state, there are many things we use. 
iesides the niilitia and before wc u.se the state militia or call 
l>on I-'e<leral triK)ps for the enforcement of a law or the 
execution of a court's judgmeiu. st:> there are forces we can 
Use internationally l>efore we employ our armies and navies. 
These forces can l>e sununarized in the term economic 



Keeping the World Safe 



pressure, by which we mean the commercial and financial 
boycott of any nation that goes to war without submitting 
its dispute to judgment or inquiry. Our plea is that in the 
first instance the use of economic force is clearly indicated, 
and that military force should be resorted to only if eco- 
nomic pressure prove ineffective. 

In considering such a use of economic pressure, it should 
be borne in mind that it already comes to pass automatically 
within a more limited area when nations go to war. War- 
ring nations promptly boycott each other. This is important 
to keep in mind because confusion on this point sometimes 
prompts the argument that "non-intercourse would be a 
more expensive weapon than war," as though the fact of 
going to war in some way avoided non-intercourse. What 
your committee really means by its recommendation is that, 
in the future, arrangements for international enforcement of 
the economic boycott should be organized on a world-wide 
scale, and that in these world-wide arrangements nations 
better fitted to cooperate with economic than with military 
power could also have a part in the application of the pres- 
sure needed to preserve the world's prosperity and progress. 

The boycott could be of progressive severity. In the first, 
and what would probably usually be the effective, stage, the 
signatory nations would refuse to buy from or sell to the 
offending nation. If the offenses, however, were aggravated 
and persistent, all intercourse could be suspended, and if 
that proved insufficient, then, as the last step, recourse could 
be taken to military force. 

It is the deterrent effect of organized non-intercourse 
which would make war less likely, since it would be a ter- 
rible penalty to incur and one more difficult in a sense to 
fight against than military measures. Further, its systematic 
organization would tend to make any subsequent military 
action by the cooperating nations more effective. 

Many states that, for various reasons, might not be able to 
cooperate with military force could cooperate by their eco- 
nomic force, and so render the action against the offending 
state more effective, and that, in the end, would be more 
humane. 



35 



\ Reference liooL for Sj)eakers 



THE NECESSITY FOR A LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
TO ENFORCE PEACE 

(Excerpts from addresses and state papers by 
W'oodro'i' W'il.um, I* resident of the United States) 

JOINT GUARANTEES ■'"''« '^''"'"^ ^^"f ** tremulous with 
OF PFArF influences of passion and of dcs- 

jHrraic struj^j^lc. and tlic only great 
(li>enj,Mj(etl nali«»n is this nation which \vc love and whose 
imere>ls we would conserve. ... 1 pray Ciod that if this 
contest have no other result, it will at least have the result 
of creating an international tribune and producing some 
sort of joint giiarantee of peace on the part of the great 
nations of the world. 

{l-rom the address at Pes Moines, loiva: 
February i. IQI6) 



1 



A CONSTABLE TO 
KEEP THE PEACE 



\\ c have undertaken very much more 
than the safety of the United States; we 
have undertaken to keep what we re- 
^'ard as demoralizing and hurtful luiroi)ean influences out 
of this hemisphere, and that means that if the world under- 
takes, as we all hojK.' it will undertake, a joint effort to keep 
the i)eacc, it will exi)ect us to play our proi)ortional part in 
manifesting the force which is going to rest back of that. 
In the last analysis the |)eacc of society is obtained by force, 
and when action comes it comes by opinion, but back of the 
opinion is the ultimate application of force. The greater 
Ixxly of <>j)ini()n says to the lesser bcwly of opinion. "*\\'e may 
be wrong, but you have to live under our direction lor the 
time l>eing. until you arc more numerous than we are." That 
is what 1 understand it amounts to. Now. let us sup|Kise 
that wc have formed a family of nations and that family 
of nations says. "The world is not going to have any more 
wars of this sort without at least first going through cer- 
tain processes to show whether there is anvthing in its 

36 



Keeping the World Safe 



case or not." If you say, "We shall not have any war," you 
have got to have the force to make the ''shall" bite. And the 
rest of the world, if America takes part in this thing, will 
have the right to expect from her that she contribute her 
element of force to the general Understanding. Surely that 
is not a militaristic ideal. That is a very practical ideal. 
{From the address before the Union Against 
Militarism: May 8, 1916) 



A LEAGUE Only when the great nations of the world 
OF NATIONS ^^^'^ reached some sort of agreement as to 
what they hold to be fundamental to their 
common interest, and as to some feasible method of acting 
in concert when any nation or group of nations seeks to dis- 
turb those fundamental things, can we feel that civilization 
is at last in a way of justifying its existence and claiming to 
be finally established. It is clear that nations must in the 
future be governed by the same high code of honor that we 
demand of individuals. 

Repeated utterances of the leading statesmen of most of 
the great nations now engaged in war have made it plain that 
their thought has come to this — that the principle of public 
right must henceforth take precedence over the individual 
interests of particular nations, and that the nations of the 
world must in some way band themselves together to see 
that that right prevails as against any sort of selfish aggres- 
sion ; that henceforth alliance must not be set up against 
alliance, understanding against understanding, that at the 
heart of that common object must lie the inviolable rights of 
peoples and of mankind. . . . If it should ever be our privi- 
lege to suggest or initiate a movement for peace among the 
nations now at war, I am sure that the people of the United 
States would wish their Government to move along the line 
of ... a universal association of the nations to maintain 
the inviolate security of the highway of the seas for the 
common and unhindered use of all the nations of the world, 
and to prevent any war begun either contrary to treaty cove- 
nants or without warning and full submission of the causes 
to the opinion of the world, — a virtual guarantee of terri- 

Z7 



A Reference Book for Speakers 



torial intej^rity and political in<lei)en<lcnce. ... I feci that the 
world is even now u|K>n the eve of a j^reat CDnsuinniatitm. 
when some common force will Ix; brouj^ht into existence 
which shall safej^iiard rijjht as the tir^t and most funda- 
mental interest of all jK-oples and all j^overnments. when 
coercion shall l)e summoned not to the service of (x>litical 
ambition or selfish hostility, but to the service of a ctMnmon 
order, a common justice, and a common |K»ace. God j^rant 
that the dawn <>f that day of frank dealini: and of settled 
peace, concord and cooperation may be near a* hand ! 
( Prom the address to the League to Enforce Peace, 
Washington, P. C: May 2J, /9/0) 



A DISENTANGLING ' ''''•''" "^^ " '"■"''' T'^"' '" M 

ALLIANCE OF NATIONS ' '•'•'"K'-K alliance l.ut would 

j^dadly assent to a disenianglmg 
alhaiKc. an alliance which would disentanfjle the |>eoples of 
the world from those combinations in which ihcy seek their 
own sc|)aralc and |>rivatc interests, and unite the |>eopIes of 
the world Im proerve the |>eace of the world ujxm a basis of 
common rij^hl and justice. There is lil)eriy there, not limita- 
tion. There is freedom, not entanjjlement. There is the 
achievement of the highest thing for which the United States 
has declared its principles. 

(From the Memorial Pay address: May ?o. rotd) 



A MONROE DOCTRINE ^'\''' ^''''''' 'f '^*^ *'» ^il^ -Monroe Doc- 
FOR THE WORLD Irnie. gentlemen. ^ ou know that 

we are alrea<ly spiritual partners 
with both continents of this hemisphere, and that America 
means something which is bigger even than the L'nited 
Stales, and that we stand here with the glori»)Us i>ower of 
this country ready to swing it out into the tield of action 
whenever liUrty and indeinrndence and i)olitical integrity 
are threatened anywhere in the western hemisphere. And 
we are ready. 

(Prom the Commencement Address at West Point: 
June tj, 1916) 

3^ 



Keeping the World Safe 



pp AsiRL E ^^^ believe that every people has the right 
ASSOCIATION ^^ choose the sovereignty under which it 
OF NATIONS ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ' ^^^^^ ^^^^ small states of the world 
have a right to enjoy from other nations the 
same respect for their sovereignty and for tlieir territorial 
integrity that great and powerful nations expect and insist 
upon ; and that the world has a right to be free from every 
disturbance of its peace that has its origin in aggression or 
disregard of the rights of peoples and nations; and we be- 
lieve that the time has come when it is the duty of the 
United States to join with the other nations of the w^orld in 
any feasible association that will effectively serve those prin- 
ciples to maintain inviolate the complete security of the 
highway of the sea for the complete and unhindered use of 
all nations. 

(From a public address: June //, ipi(5) 



A JUST AND There must be a just and settled peace, 

SETTLED PEACE ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ "^ x\merica must contribute 
the full force of our enthusiasm and of 
our authority as a nation to the organization of that peace 
upon world-wide foundations that cannot easily be shaken. 
No nation should be forced to take sides in any quarrel in 
which its own honor and integrity and the fortunes of its 
own people are not involved; but no nation can any longer 
remain neutral as against any wilful disturbance of the 
peace of the world. The effects of war can no longer be 
confined to the areas of battle. No nation stands wholly 
apart in interest when the life and interests of all nations are 
thrown into confusion and peril. If hopeful and generous 
enterprise is to be renewed, if the healing and helpful arts 
of life are indeed to be revived when peace comes again, a 
new atmosphere of justice and friendship must be generated 
by means the world has never tried before. The nations of 
the world must unite in joint guarantees that whatever is 
done to disturb the whole world's life must first be tested in 
the court of the whole world's opinion before it is attempted. 
These are the new foundations the world must build for 
itself, and we must play our part in the reconstruction, gen- 

39 



A Reference Book for Sprahers 



erously and withuut too much thought of our separate inter- 
ests. We must make ourselves ready to play it inteUigently 
vigorously and well. 

(From the Sf>ei\h of Acceptance at Lotii; Branch: 
September j, I(^i6) 



AMFRiTA AND ^^^^^'^ ^^'^ '"<^^ forward to the years to 
THE WORLD Come — I wish I could say the months to 

come — to the end of this war, we want all 
the world Id know that we are ready to lend our force with- 
out stint to the preservation of peace in the interest of man- 
kind. The world is no longer divided into little circles of 
interest. The world no longer consists of neighlxjrhoods. 
The world is linked together in a common life and interest 
such as humanity never saw iK'fore. and the starting of wars 
can never again he a private and individual matter for the 
nations. \\ hat disluri)S the life of the whole world is the 
concern of the whole world, and it is our duty to lend the 
full force of this nation, moral and physical, to a league of 
nations which shall see to it that nobody disturbs the |)eace 
of the world without submitting his case tirst to the opinion 
of mankind. 

(From the Semi-Centennial .Iddress at Omaha, 
Xehraska: October C), iiji6) 



cr<-iiDiKir> -rur '" ^^^^' measures to be taken to se- 

PEACE OF THE WORLD 'I'''' ""^^ /"'"^ P'^^-''^'^ "f 'he world 

the i>cople and Ciovernment of the 
United States arc as \ ilally and as clirectly interested as the 
Governments now at war. Their interest, moret)ver, in the 
means to \yc ado|)ted to relieve the smaller and weaker |h.*o- 
ples of the world of the i>cril of wrong and violence is as 
quick antl ardent as that of any other people or (iovernment. 
They stand ready, and even eager, to ciH»perate in the ac- 
C(»m|>lishment of these ends when the war is over with every 
influence and resource at their command. 

(From the President's identic note to the nations 
at 7i'ar: October iS. to 16) 

40 



Keeping the World Safe 



^..^. .^.^.^K. ^rr The business of neutrality is over. 

^ "^^^^oltT.^^.? • • • War now has such a scale that 
INTERDEPENDENCE ^,^^ ^^^-^-^^ ^j ^^^^^^l^ 3„q„,, ^r 

later becomes intolerable, just as neutrality would be intol- 
erable to me if I lived in a community where everybody had 
to assert his own rights by force and I had to go around 
among my neighbors and say, "Here, this cannot last any 
longer ; let us get together and see that nobody disturbs the 
peace any more." That is what society is, and v\^e have not 
yet a society of nations. We must have a society of nations. 
Not suddenly, not by insistence, not by any hostile emphasis 
upon the demand, but by the demonstration of the needs 
of the time. The nations of the world must get together and 
say that nobody can hereafter be neutral as respects the 
disturbance of the world's peace for an object which the 
world's opinion cannot sanction. The world's peace ought to 
be disturbed if the fundamental rights of humanity are in- 
vaded, but it ought not to be disturbed for any other thing 
that I can think of, and America was established in order to 
indicate, at any rate in one government, the fundamental 
rights of man. America must hereafter be ready as a mem- 
ber of the family of nations to exert her whole force, moral 
and physical, to the assertion of those rights throughout 
the round globe. 

(From an address before the Woman's City Club 
of Cincinnati: October 25, ipi6) 



^^ The world will never be again what it has 
NATIONS TO-DAY ^^^^ ^j^^ United States will never be 
ARE NEIGHBORS ^^^-^^ ^j^^^ -^ ^^^ ^^^^ j^^ United 

States was once in enjoyment of what we used to call splen- 
did isolation. The three thousand miles of the Atlantic 
seemed to hold all European affairs at arm's length from us. 
The great spaces of the Pacific seemed to disclose no threat 
of influence upon our politics. Now from across the Atlan- 
tic and from across the Pacific we feel to the quick the 
influences which are affecting ourselves. ... It does not 
suffice to look, as some gentlemen are looking, back over 
their shoulders, to suggest that we do again what we did 

41 



A Reference Hook for Speakers 



w hen we were provincial and isolated and unconnected with 
the great forces of the world, for now we arc in the great 
drift of luunanity which is to determine the politics of every 
country in the world. 

( i-rom an address delivered at Long Branch. \. J.: 
Soi'embcr 4, IQ16) 



In everv discussion of the peace 
A COVFNANT OF j,^^^ ^^^^'^^ ^.^^^j jj^j^ ^^.^^ -^ -^ j^,.^.„ 

COOPERATIVE PEACE ^^j. ^^anted that that |)eace must he 
followed hy some definite concert of i)Ower. which will make 
it virtually impossihle that any such catastrophe should ever 
nvcrwhclni us a^ain. ICvery lover of mankind, every sane 
iid tluiuj^ditlul man. must take thai for j;:ranted. 
It is inconceivahlc that the |H:<)plc of the United States 
should play no part in that great enterprise. To take part in 
such a service will In? the oi)portunity for which they have 
sought to prepare themselves hy the very principles and 
puri>05^s of their i>olity and the approved practices of their 
Government, ever since the days when they set up a new 
nation in the high and honorable ho|)e that it might, in all 
that it was and did. show mankind the way to lil)erty. They 
cannot, in honor, within »ld the service to which they are now 
al)out to l)e challenged. They do not wish to withhold it. 
lUit they owe it to themselves .ind to the other nations of the 
world to slate the conditions under which they will feel free 
lo render it. 

That service is nothing less than this — to add their au- 
thority and their power to the authority and force of other 
nations lo guarantee jH^ace and justice throughout the world. 
Such a settlement cannot now be long |M)st|)«nicd It is right 
that U'fore it comes this (iovernment should frankly fonnu- 
late the conditions upon which it would feel jusiitied in ask- 
ing our peoj)le to approve its formal and solenm adherence 
to a league for i)eace. . . . We owe it to candor and to a 
just regard for the opinion of mankind to say that, so far 
as our participation in guarantees of future |>eace is con- 
cerned, it makes a great deal of ditTerence m what way and 
upon what terms it is ended. The treaties and agreements 

42 



1 



Keeping the World Safe 



which bring it to an end must embody terms which will 
create a peace that is worth guaranteeing and preserving, a 
peace that will win the approval of mankind, not merely a 
peace that will serve the several interests and immediate 
aims of the nations engaged. 

We shall, I feel sure, have a voice in determining whether 
they shall be made lasting or not by the guarantees of a 
universal covenant, and our judgment upon what is funda- 
mental and essential as a condition precedent to permanency 
should be spoken now, not afterwards, when it may be too late. 

No covenant of cooperative peace that does not include 
the peoples of the New World can suffice to keep the future 
safe against war, and yet there is only one sort of peace that 
the peoples of America could join in guaranteeing. . . . 
Mere agreements may not make peace secure. It will be 
absolutely necessary that a force be created as a guarantor 
of the permanency of the settlement so much greater than 
the force of any nation now engaged, or any alliance hitherto 
formed or projected, that no nation, no probable combina- 
tion of nations, could face or withstand it. If the peace 
presently to be made is to endure, it must be a peace made 
secure by the organized major force of mankind. . 

And in holding out the expectation that the people and 
Government of the United States will join the other civi- 
lized nations of the world in guaranteeing the permanence 
of peace upon such terms as I have named, I speak with 
the greater boldness and confidence because it is clear to 
every man who can think that there is in this promise no 
breach in either our traditions or our policy as a nation, but a 
fulfilment rather of all that we have professed or striven for. 

I am proposing, as it were, that the nations should with 
one accord adopt the doctrine of President Monroe as the 
doctrine of the world : that no nation should seek to extend 
its policy over any other nation or people, but that every 
people should be left free to determine its own policy, its 
own way of development, unhindered, ■ unthreatened, un- 
afraid, the little along with the great and powerful. 

I am proposing that all nations henceforth avoid en- 
tangling alliances which would draw them into competitions 
of power, catch them in a net of intrigue and selfish rivalry, 

43 



:\ Krff'rrnrr liooh for SpraLrrs 



and disturb tlieir own affairs with influences intruded from 
without. There is no entanjjhnj^ aUiance in a concert of 
power. When all unite to act in the same sense and with 
the same i)ur|K)se. all act in the common interest and arc 
free to live tlicir own lives under a common protection. 

I am projM»injj jjovcrnment by the consent of the gov- 
erned; that frccjlom of the seas which in international con- 
ference after conference representatives of the United 
States have urged with the elocjuence of those who are the 
convinced disi^iples of !.ilK*rty; and that nio<leration of 
armaments which makes of armies and navies a ix)wer for 
'•rdcr merely, not an instrument of aggression or of selfish 

riu-^c are American principles. .American policies. \\c 
can viand for no others. .And they are also the j)rinciples 
and policies of forward-looking men and women everywhere, 
of every mo<Iern nation, of every enlightened community. 
They are the principles of mankind and must prevail. 

(Prom the address to the Senate: January j?. ror^) 



A I EAGUE ^ '"^ object is to vindicate the priiu iples of 
OF HONOR V^'^^'^ ''"^^ ju.stice in the life of the world as 
against seltish and autocratic ])ower, and to set 
up amongst the really free and self -governed peoples of the 
world such a concert of purpose and of action as will hence- 
forth insure the observance of those princij)les. 

A steadfast concert for |)eace can never l)e maintained 
except by a partnership of democratic nations. No auto- 
cratic Government could Ik? trusted to keep faith within it 
or observe its coxenants. It nuist be a league of honor, a 
partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals away: 
the |»lntiings of inner circles who could plan what they 
would and render account to no one would \k' a corruption 
.seated at its very heart. Only free i)eoples can hold their 
purpose and their honor .steady to a comiuon end and prefer 
the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of their 
own. . . . 

We are now alxnit to accept gage of battle with this 
natural foe to lilwrty and shall, if necessary. s|HMid the whole 

44 



Keeping the World Safe 



force of the nation to check and nulHfy its pretensions and 
its power. We are glad, now that we see the facts with no 
veil of false pretense about them, to fight thus for the ulti- 
mate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, 
the German people included ; for the rights of nations, great 
and small, and the privilege of men everywhere to choose 
their way of life and of obedience. 

The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace 
must be planted upon the tested foundations of political lib- 
erty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no con- 
quest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, 
no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely 
make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of 
mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been 
made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can 
make them. . . . 

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the 
Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. 
There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacri- 
fice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great, 
peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disas- 
trous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the 
balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we 
shall fight for the things which we have always carried near- 
est our hearts — for democracy, for the right of those who 
submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, 
for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal 
dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall 
bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world 
itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives 
and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything 
that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day 
has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and 
her might for the principles that gave her birth and happi- 
ness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping 
her, she can do no other. 

(From the War Message to Congress: 
April 2, 191 7) 



45 



A Reference Hook for Speakers 



INTERNATIONAL ^^^^ legislation makes no attempt to solve 
COOPERATION ""^ ?""|'"" "' =* I-crniancnt military ix.1- 
icv for the country, cliicny tor the reason 
ihat in these anxious and disonlered limes a clear view can- 
not Ik' had either of our permanent military necessities or o! 
the U-st mode of or^'anizing a i)roper military peace estal>- 
lishment. The ho|)e of the world is that when the KurojK-an 
war is over, arrangements will have l)een made comi>osinj» 
many of the (juestions which have hitherto seemed to require 
the arming of the nations, and that in some ordered and just 
way the peace of the world may Ik- maintained by such co- 
operations of force amonj^ the great nations as may l)e neces- 
sary to maintain peace and freedom throughout the world. 
When these arranj^emenls for a permanent peace are made, 
we can determine our military needs and adapt our course 
of military preparation to the genin> «»f a world organized 
for justice and democracy. 

(From the statement on the deuerai >>tajj Bill, 
issued April 6, li^iy) 



THE BROTHERHOOD ^\"-; ■'"■■ ''«'"'"« ^"''^'^ '''"^^"i'^- '''^ 
__ .. .Kiv-ivirA self-g(>vernment. and the undictated 

Or MANK.IINL/ i i » / n i i 

development of all peoples, and every 
feature iA the settlement that concludes this war must l>e 
conceived and executed for that purpose. Wrongs must first 
l>e righted, and then adequate safeguards must l)c created to 
l)revent their Ixring committed again. We ought not to con- 
sider remedies merely because they have a pleasing and so- 
norous sound. Practical (|uestions can he settled only by 
l>ractical means. Thrases will not accomplish the result 
I'jYective readjustments will; and whatever readju'^tmeIUs 
are necessary must Ik* made. 

But they must follow a principle, and that principle is 
plain. No people must l)e forced under sovereignty under 
which it does not wish to live. No territory must change 
hands except for the purpose of .securing those who inhabit 
it a fair chance of life and lil)erty. X»> indenmities nuist l)C 
insisted on except those that constitute payment ft»r manifest 
wrongs done. No readjustments of |)ower nmst l)e made 

4^> 



Keeping the World Safe 



except such as will tend to secure the future peace of the 
world and the future welfare and happiness of its peoples. 
And then the free peoples of the world must draw to- 
gether in some common covenant, some genuine and practi- 
cal cooperation that will in effect combine their force to 
secure peace and justice in the dealings of nations with one 
another. The brotherhood of mankind must no longer be a 
fair but empty phrase ; it must be given a structure of force 
and reality. The nations must realize their common life and 
effect a workable partnership to secure that life against the 
aggressions of autocratic and self-pleasing power. 

{From the message to the Russian Government: 
published June lo, IQ17) 



A COVENANTED PEACE l^\ purposes of the United 

btates m this war are known to 
the whole world — to every people to whom the truth has 
been permitted to come. • They do not need to be stated 
again. We seek no material advantage of any kind. We 
believe that the intolerable wrongs done in this war by the 
furious and brutal power of the Imperial German Govern- 
ment ought to be repaired, but not at the expense of the 
sovereignty of any people — rather a vindication of the sover- 
eignty both of those that are weak and of those that are 
strong. Punitive damages, the dismemberment of empires, 
the establishment of selfish and exclusive economic leagues, 
we deem inexpedient and in the end worse than futile, no 
proper basis for a peace of any kind, least of all for an 
enduring peace. That must be based upon justice and fair- 
ness and the common rights of mankind. 

{From the reply to Pope Benedict: 
August 2j, ipiy) 



47 



A Hefrrrnrr HodL for SpraLrr^ 



EUROPEAN STATESMEN URGE 
A LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

THE RIGHT HONORABLE DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 
PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN 

The world will then l)e able, when this war is over, to 
attend to its business in peace. There will l)e no war or 
rumors of war to disturb and to distract. We can build up, 
AC can reconstruct, we can till, we can cultivate and enrich, 
and the burden and terror and waste of war will have gone. 
The l>est security for |K*ace will be that nations band them- 
selves together to punish the |>eace-breaker. In the armories 
of Kuro|)e, every weapon will l>e a sword of justice. In the 
government of men. every army will \yc the constabulary of 
peace. 

{From the address at Guildhall: January 1 1, i<^l/) 



THE RIGHT HONORABLE HERBERT ASQUITH 
FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN 

\\ c arc l)oun(l, and not only bound, but glail. lu give 
respectful attention to such pronouncements as the recent 
sl>eech of . . . President Wilson. That speech was ad- 
dressed . . . to the American Senate, and through them to 
the people of the United States. It was, therefore, a declara- 
tion of American ix)licy, or, to speak more precisely, of 
American ideals. The President held out to his hearers the 
prosjK'ct of an era when the civilization of mankind, banded 
together for the purpose, will make it their joint and several 
fluty to repress by their united authority, and if need Ik? by 
tlicir combined naval and military forces, any wanton or 
aggressive invasion of the |n-ace of the world. It is a fine 
ideal, which must arouse all our sympathies. 

(from the speech in the House of Commons: 
Februarx /, /p/7) 

48 



Keeping the World Safe 



THE RIGHT HONORABLE ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR 
BRITISH SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

We are forced to the sorrowful recognition of the weak- 
ness of international law so long as it is unsupported by 
international authority. . . . Here we come face to face 
with the great problem which lies behind all the changing 
aspects of this tremendous war. When it is brought to an 
end, how is civilized mankind so to reorganize itself that 
similar catastrophes shall not be permitted to recur? . . . 
The problem is insistent. . . . Surely, even now, it is fairly 
clear that if substantial progress is to be made towards se- 
curing the peace of the world and a free development of its 
constituent nations, the United States of America and the 
British Empire should explicitly recognize, what all instinc- 
tively know, that on these great subjects they share a com- 
mon ideal. ... If, in our time, any substantial effort is to 
be made toward securing the permanent triumph of the 
Anglo-Saxon ideal, the great communities which accept it 
must work together. And in working together they must 
remember that law is not enough. Behind law there must 
be power. It is good that arbitration should be encouraged. 
It is good that the accepted practices of warfare should be- 
come ever more humane. It is good that before peace is 
broken the would-be belligerents should be compelled to dis- 
cuss their differences in some congress of the nations. It is 
good that the security of the smaller States should be fenced 
round with peculiar care. But all the precautions are mere 
scraps of paper unless they can be enforced. 

Speaking myself more than two years ago in the early 
months of the war, at Dublin, of the ends which we as a 
people ought to keep in view, taking as my text Mr. Glad- 
stone's words that the greatest triumph of our time would 
be. the enthronement of the idea of public right as the gov- 
erning idea of European politics, and asking what that 
meant, or what it ought to mean when translated into prac- 
tice, I said, I believe with the general approval of my fellow- 
countrymen, what I am going to quote : — It means, finally, 
or it ought to mean, perhaps by a slow and gradual process, 
the substitution for force, for the clash of competing ambi- 
tion, for groupings and alliances of a precarious equipoise, 

49 



A Reference Boitk for Speakers 



of a real Iuiroi)ean partnership, based on the recog^iition of 
<fcjual rij^lit. and cstaf)li'-hcd and enforced by a common will. 
1 am not sure thai there is any substantial dilTerence l>e- 
tween President \\ ilson's ideal and the one which 1 thus 
endeavored to depict, except- and this I admit is a larj^c 
step in advance— that he would bl<jt out the fjeoi^'raphical 
limitation of Iuiro|>e. and asscxiate the United States, and 
indeed all civilized peoples, in the same |)eace-preservin>; 
fraternitN. We never have had the faintest desire for the 
annihilation of the ( ierinan |>eople. or of the < ierman state. 
1 )estruciion. widespread and terril)le to ccjntemplate, is a 
necessary incident of all war. but our object in this war is 
not to destroy, but to reconstruct on a deeper-laid and a 
more enduring basis tiie wantonly broken fabric of public 
right and national indei)endence. 

{i-rom iw iutcniciv in THE LONDOS TIM PS : 
.\fay iS. H)i6) 



VISCOUNT GREY OF FALLODON 

FORMER BRITISH SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

It the peace of luirope can be preserved and the present 
< risis safely ]>assed, my own endeavor will be to promote 
some arrangement, to which (jermany could Ik* a party, by 
which she could W assured that no aggressive or hostile pol- 
icy would be j)ursued against her or her allies by h'rance, 
K'ussia and oursebes, jointly or separately. The idea has 
liitluTto been too Utopian to form the subject of <let'mite 
l>roposals. but. if this |)resent crisis, so much more acute 
than any that luirope has gone through for generations, be 
safely passed. I am hopeful that the relief and reaction 
whicli will follow may make possible some more defmite 
ra|)prochement Ix'tween the Powers than has l)een jxissible 
hitherto. 

{From the statement to Sir Bdxvard Goschcn: 
July ?o. IQ14) 



\\ hen nations cannot see eye to eye. when they quarrel, 
when there is a threat of war. we iKdiexe that the contro- 

50 



Keeping the World Safe 



versy should be settled by methods other than those of war 
buch other methods are always successful when there is 
goodwill and no aggressive spirit. We believe in negotia- 
tions. We have faith in international conferences 

Long before the war I hoped for a league of nations that 
would be united, quick, and instant to prevent, and if need 
be to punish violations of international treaties of public 
right and of national independence, and would say to nations 
that come forward with grievances and claims: "Put them 
before an impartial tribunal. If you can win at this bar 
you will get what you want; if you cannot, you shall not 
have what you want; and if you attempt to start a war we 
all shall adjudge you the common enemy of humanity and 
treat you accordingly." As footpads, safe-breakers, burglars 
and incendiaries are suppressed in a community, so those 
who would commit these crimes, and incalculably more than 
these crimes, will be suppressed among the nations. 
{From an interview in THE CHICAGO NEWS: 
May jj, /p/d) , 



If the nations of the world after this war are to do some- 
thing more effective than they were ever able to do before 
this war, to combine themselves for the common object of 
preserving peace, they must be prepared not to undertake 
more than they are able to uphold by force, and to see when 
the time of crisis comes that it is upheld by force. 

{From an address before the Foreign Press Asso- 
ciation of London: October ^^y ipi6) 



I sincerely desire to see a league of nations formed and 
made effective to secure the future peace of the world after 
this war is over. I regard this as the best, if not the only, 
prospect of preserving treaties and of saving the world 
from aggressive wars in years to come. 

{From a cablegram to the League to Enforce 
Peace: November 24, ipi6) 

51 



A Hrfcrence Book for Speakers 



THE RIGHT HONORABLE ANDREW BONAR LAW 
BRITISH CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER 

rrcM'lciii \\ iNons aim is tf» lia\c peace now and security 
for \yeace in the future. That is our aim also and it is our 
only aim. He hojKs to secure this by a league of peace, 
and he not only s|)oke in favor of such a league hut he is 
trying to induce the American Senate to take the steps neces- 
sary to give ctTect to it. It would not he right to IchjU ui>on 
the question as altogether Utopian, ^'ou know that only 
(juite recently, almost up to our own time, duelling was com- 
mon, and n»)W the idea that i)ri\ate (|uarrcls should l)e set- 
tled hy the sword has become unthinkable. I think it is not 
impossible — I hope it may prove |)ossible — that the time may 
come when the nations of the world will look upon what 
Cromwell descril)ed as his great work as their work too — 
that of l)eing a constable to preserve jK'ace in the parish. 
( I-ri)fn the speech at Bristitl: Jatiuar\ jj. lOI') 



4 



EARL CURZON 

LORD PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH WAR COUNCIL 

rhey would l)e surprised if when the war was over the 

better judgment of mankind did not rally in force and say 
that these abominations must not be again in the world. 
Mankind must Ik* .saved from the j)eril of its own passion. 
Machinery mu.st Ik* devised to prevent the reign of brute 
force in the world. 

{From his statement as Chairman of the Atlantic 
Union: May i6, I(^i6) 



LORD ROBERT CECIL 

BRITISH MINISTER OF BLOCKADE 

.•\re we to go back after the war to just the same inter- 
national system as prevailed l)efore it? Is nothing to be 
done to rescue I*-uro|>e at least from international anarchy? 
^iirely we will try for something l)etter. 

{I'rom the Inauijural Address. Cambridge Sumfner 
Meeting: August 2, I^i6) 

52 



Keeping the World Safe 



The war aims of the Entente AlHes as previously an- 
nounced still hold good ; there is sympathy with the Russian 
programme of no annexations and nq indemnities, on the 
understanding that this refers to annexations and indem- 
nities for purposes of political aggrandizement; but there 
will be annexations to complete the freedom of the peoples 
enslaved by the Teutonic Powers and indemnities for the 
wrongs committed in Belgium, France, Serbia and Poland. 
We at any rate are determined not to accept a peace that 
will be no peace. The peace that we accept must be a peace 
that will be durable. I have always been an adherent of the 
idea of a league of nations, . . . but such a league must be 
founded upon a sound, just, and equitable basis. 

{From an address to the British House of 
Commons: May i6, 191 /) 



THE RIGHT HONORABLE ARTHUR HENDERSON 
FORMER MEMBER OF THE BRITISH WAR COUNCIL 
FORMER SECRETARY OF THE BRITISH LABOR PARTY 

Such a peace can only be satisfactory if founded upon the 
defeat of unrestrained militarism, and accompanied by a 
League of Nations sufficiently strong to keep the existing 
armies in their proper places, prevent the inflation of arma- 
ments, and secure the enforcement of international law. 
It must be a peace which will serve to remove, or at least 
weaken, the causes of unrest between nations, and bring into 
universal disfavor acts of aggression. 

{From a speech to Croydon North End Brother- 
hood: January 18, 191 f) 



GENERAL THE HONORABLE JAN C. SMUTS, K.C., N.L.A. 
MINISTER OF DEFENSE, UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 

We must have not merely agreements between nations, but 
a bedrock of honesty and sincerity in the peoples, on which a 
lasting agreement could be built. We must have a public 
opinion which would be the best guarantee of peace, and 

53 



A Reference Book for Speakers 



which would see that jjovcrnnicnts were kept in order. Na- 
tions must decide their own fate and no longer \)c disposed 
of by statesmen an«J j^'overnnient^. . . . We must in s<»me 
form hring about a Ixaj^aie of Nations, with some common 
organ of consuhation and decision on vital issues. 

(From an address at the League of Nations Mass 
Sicetiny. held in Central Hall, Westminster: May 



It is expedient in the interest of mankind that some ma- 
chinery should Ik- set up after the |)rcscnt war for the pur- 
I)ose of maintaining international right and general jK'ace. 
and this meeting welcomes the suggestion put forward for 
this purpose l>y the President of the United Slates and other 
influential statesmen in America, and commends to the sym- 
pathetic consideration of the British peoi)le the idea of fonn- 
ing a union of free nations for the preservation of ]>erma- 
nent j^eace. 

{From a rcsoiunim introduced hy (it'itrrdi .smms. 
seconded hy the Archbishop of Canterbury, and 
unanimously adopted at the Leaijue of Xations 
Mass Meetinq. Central Hall, Westminster: Max 



LORD NORTHCLIFFE 

BRITISH EDITOR 

HEAD OF THE AMERICAN MISSION 

A close federation of the nations now fighting the good 
fight will l)e the only insurance against the autocracy that 
made this war ixjssible and the horrors that the armies of 
the autocrat peri>et rated on innocent non-combatants. The 
world must be made free for democracy. 

(From an address before the Players Club, 
Arte York City: June jS, JQI7) 

54 



Keeping the World Safe 



PROFESSOR PAUL PAINLEVE 
PREMIER OF FRANCE 

If France pursues this war, it is neither for conquest nor 
out of vengeance. It is to defend her hberty, her indepen- 
dence, and, at the same time, the Hberty and independence 
of the civiHzed world. Her claims are those of right itself. 
. . . The disannexation of Alsace-Lorraine, reparation for 
the ruin caused by the enemy, and the conclusion of a peace 
that will not be a peace of constrained violence, comprising 
within itself germs of wars to Come, but a peace that is a 
just peace, in which there are efficacious guarantees to pro- 
tect the society of nations against all aggressions from one 
among them — such are the noble aims of France. 

(From the Ministerial Declaration read in the 
French Chamber of Deputies, Paris: September i8, 
1917) 



M. ALEXANDRE RIBOT 
FORMER PREMIER OF FRANCE 

It is necessary that a League of Peace be founded in 
the same spirit of democracy that France has had the honor 
of introducing into the world. The nations now in arms 
will constitute the Society of Nations. This is the future of 
humanity, or one might well despair of the future. Presi- 
dent Wilson upon this point is with us. All nations not 
predatory must unite to prevent others from disturbing the 
peace. They must unite in an armed league to make re- 
spected throughout the world, peace, justice and liberty. 
{From an address to the French Senate: 
June 6, iQiy) 



M. ARISTIDE BRIAND 
FORMER PREMIER OF FRANCE 

A solid, lasting peace guaranteed against any return of 
violence by appropriate international measures. 

(From a public statement: September 14, ipi6) 

55 



A I<r femur liuoL for Sprdhrrs 



M. RENE VIVIANI 

FORMER PREMIER OF FRANCE 

HEAD OF THE FRENCH MISSION TO THE UNITED STATES 

And now \vc sec all Amcnca ri>c and >harpcn her weap- 
ons in the midst of peace tor the coninioii striii;i,de. To- 
j^ether we will carry on that struj^^^i^le; and wlien by force 
we have at last iiniK>se<l military victory, our lal)ors will not 
l)c concluded. Our task will be— I quote the noble words of 
I 'resident Wilson— to orjjanize the society of nations. . . . 
\fter material victory we will win this moral victory. We 
will >hatter the ix»n(lerous sword of militarism, we will 
estal)lish ji^iarantccs for i>cacc, and then we can di>ap|>ear 
from the world's sta^e. since we sliall leave at the cost of 
our common immolalitjn the noblot heritai^e future gener- 
ations can possess. 

(From the speech before the United States Senate: 
May I, loi;) 



\"our llatj bears forty-eij^ht stars representing^ forty-eiijht 
states. ICach Mate has its own Ict^islature. but all are sub- 
ject to 1-V«leral laws that were ma<le for all. May we not 
liope for the day when all the nations of the earth will be 
united as are your states, under certain broad and ijeneral 
restrictions that will make it forever imix)ssible for some 
ma<l aut«)crat to play havoc with the universe? 

( I'roni the speech at the Boston Public Library: 
May i;. loiy) 



AMBASSADOR BORIS BAKHMKTIEFF 

MEMBER OF THE RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC MISSION 

Peaceful in its intentions, strivini; for a la.stinij peace 
ba>e«l on democratic principle and established by demo- 
cratic will, tlie Russian |)eople and its army are rallying their 
forces around the banners of freedom, strenijtheninjj their 
ranks in cheerful self -consciousness to die but not to be 
slaves. Russia wants the world to !)e safe for democrac>. 
To make it safe means to have democracy rule the world. 



Keeping the World Safe 



. . . Russia will not fail to be a worthy partner in the 
"League of Honor." 

{From an address before the United States Senate: 
June 26, i^iy) 



Russia believes that a permanent peace can be enacted 
when all democracies will agree to hold to and follow cer- 
tain precepts and embody them with all sincerity and with- 
out reserve. The nations must realize their common life 
and effect a workable partnership to secure that life against 
aggressions of autocracy. 

{From an address at Carnegie Hall, Nezv York: 
July 6, ipi/) 



PROFESSOR PAUL N. MILIUKOFF 

FORMER RUSSIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

The definition by President Wilson o'f the purposes of the 
war corresponds entirely with the declarations of the states- 
men of the allied powers. M. Briand, Mr. Asquith, and 
Viscount Grey all expressed themselves continually on the 
necessity of seeking to prevent conflicts of armed forces by 
providing peaceful methods of solution for international 
disputes and creating a new organization of nations based 
upon order and justice in international life. The democ- 
racy of free Russia is able to associate itself completely with 
these declarations. 

{From a statement to the Associated Press: 
April 7, 19 1 7) 



SR. AUGUSTO CIUFFELLI 

MEMBER OF THE ITALIAN WAR MISSION 

This must be the last war. Nations cannot in the future 
squander all their money on military preparedness. The 
new spirit must make us live together in the ideals of peace 
and justice. Italy is eager to take her place in a new world 
organized for peace. 

{From a statement to tlie press: June i, 1917) 
S7 



A lirfrrciicc HuoL fur SpraLrrs 



HR. GUNNAR KNUDSEN 
NORWEGIAN MINISTER OF STATE 

It has l)een difficult to realize tlie meaning of this world 
catastrophe. IJut now we are beginning to find the reason, 
in what seemed quite beyond reason. Democracy has 
gained great victories in ICurope during the war. And 
the work of creating right and justice between the peoples 
through a general co<)perati(»n for j)reventing new wars has 
gained an actuality as never before. If this war brings, as a 
result, the democratizing of the peoples and the sub^^titu- 
tion of riidit iii-tt;i<l t.f iiiiL'ht. then the \\;ir ll;l>^ imt V-eii 
too (lea I 

( I'rom (/ stdU'ttictii ni c in isiuuihi oti C (nisitmiton 
Day: May /5. JQJ') 



1 



i 



HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT 

We now wisli to make a more c«»iureie ami i)raciical pro- 
posal and to invite tlie governments of the l>elligerents to 
come to an agreement uix>n the f«»llo\\ing |K)ints which seem 
to be a basis of a just and durable ]>eacc. leaving to them 
the task of analyzing and comjjleting them. 

hirst of all. tiie fundamental jK)int must be that the ma- 
terial force of arms be substituted by the moral force of 
right, from which shall arise a fair agreement by all for the 
simultaneous and reciprocal diminution of armaments, ac- 
cording to the rules ami guarantees to be established, in a 
measure necessary and sufficient for the maintenance of 
public order in each state. 

Then in the substitution for armies of the instituti«>n of 
arbitration with its high pacifying function, according to the 
rules to l)e laid down and the penalties to be im|K)sed on a 
state which would refuse either to submit a national ques- 
tion U) arbitration or to accept its decision. 

{I- rum the messayc to the bclligcreitt govern- 
ments: August I, igtj) 



58. 



Keeping the World Safe 



GOVERNMENTS PLEDGE SUPPORT TO 
A LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

Ojficial Correspondence and Resolutions 

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES 

In the measures to be taken to secure the future peace of 
the world the people and Government of the United States 
are as vitally and as directly interested as the Governments 
now at war. Their interest, moreover, in the means to be 
adopted to relieve the smaller and weaker peoples of the 
world of the peril of wrong and violence is as quick and 
ardent as that of any other people or government. They 
stand ready, and even eager, to cooperate in the accomplish- 
ment of these ends when the war is over with every influence 
and resource at their command. 

(From President Wilson's identic note to the zvar- 
ring nations: dated JVashington, December i8, 
19 16) 



THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE ENTENTE ALLIES 

In a general way they (the Allied Governments) desire to 
declare their respect for the lofty sentiments inspiring the 
American Note (of December i8th) and their whole- 
hearted agreement with the proposal to create a League of 
Nations which shall assure peace and justice throughout the 
world. They recognize all the benefits that would accrue to 
the cause of humanity and civilization from the institution 
of international arrangements designed to prevent violent 
conflicts between nations, and so framed as to provide the 
sanctions necessary to their enforcement, lest an illusory 
security should serve merely to facilitate fresh acts of 
aggression. 

{From the joint reply to the American Note: 
dated Paris, January 10, ipi/) 

59 



A Rrfrrence Book for Speakers 



THE GOVERNMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN 

lli^ Majc-i\ - < iM\crnnient . . . iccls strongly that the 
iurabihty of j)cacc must largely de|x?nd on its character and 
iliat no stable system of international relations can be built 
on foundations which are essentially and hoi>elessly defec- 
tive. . . . There are those who think that for this disease 
international treaties and international laws may provide a 
sutVicient cure. . . . The jKoplc of this country ... do not 
believe i)eace can l)e durable if it be not based on the success 
of the allied cause, h'or a durable peace can hardly l)e ex- 
pected unless three conchtions are fulfilled: the first is that 
the existing causes of international unrest should l>e as far 
as i)ossible removed or weakened ; the second is that the 
aggressive aims and the unscrupulous methods of the Cen- 
tral Powers .should fall into disrepute among their own peo- 
ples: the third is tliat behind iiUernational law and l)ehind 
all treaty arrangements for preventing or limiting hostilities 
some form of international sanction shouUl l)e devisetl which 
would give pau.se to the hardiest aggres.sor. 

(From a letter from Foreign Seeretary Balfour to 
Sir Cecil Spriug-Rice: dated London, January ij, 
1017) 

THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT 

11k- I hamher of I)epulies. the direct expression of the 
sovereignty of the I'Vcnch people, ex|)ects that the efforts of 
the armies of the Republic and her allies will .secure, once 
Prussian militarism is destroyed, durable guarantees for 
peace and inde|K'ndence for peoples great and small, in a 
league of nations such as has already Ijccn foreshadowed. 
( From a resolution adopted by the Chamber of 
Deputies and appro^'ed b\ thr S'.h.j/i- ,lit.-.{ Paris, 
June ./ and June 6, i^iy i 



THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT 

l\u>>ia ha> always been in full sympathy with the broad, 
luunanitarian principles expressed by the President of the 
L'nited States. His message to the Senate, therefore, has 

60 



Keeping the World Safe 



made a most favorable impression upon the Russian Govern- 
ment. Russia will welcome all suitable measures which will 
help prevent a recurrence of the world war. Accordingly 
we can gladly indorse President Wilson's communication. 

{From a statement given out by the Foreign Office 
to the Associated Press: dated Petrograd, January 
26, 1912) 



THE GOVERNMENT OF SWITZERLAND 

It is with very great interest that we have taken note of 
the programme of your humanitarian movement. In asking 
us to associate ourselves in it you have given us a new proof 
of the sympathy of the United States for Switzerland and 
we desire to say to you how much we appreciate it. The 
League to Enforce Peace, which counts among its members 
so many eminent personalities, aims to insure the mainte- 
nance of peace after it shall have been concluded; truly a 
delicate mission, but the difficulties of which are not to be 
allowed to discourage your efforts. You regard as one of 
the most efficacious means to that end a treaty of arbi- 
tration conceived in the same spirit as the treaty of Feb- 
ruary 13, 1 9 14, between Switzerland and the United 
States, a treaty which all the countries are to sign and by 
which they will undertake to submit to the decision of a 
supreme international tribunal the conflicts which may arise 
between them in order to avoid, as far as possible, a return 
of the catastrophe which desolates the world to-day. Swit- 
zerland is so much the better placed to appreciate the work 
of which the United States has taken the initiative, because, 
surrounded on all sides by war, peopled by the race and 
inheriting the language and the culture of three among the 
combatant nations, she is better able than any other country 
to realize the- fact that war is inhuman, and is contrary to 
the superior interest of civilization which is the common 
patrimony of all men. If, then, at the conclusion of peace, 
the occasion should present itself for us to unite our efforts 
to yours, we will not fail to do so, and we will be happy to 

61 



A Reference Book for Speakers 



make our contribution toward rendering |)eace more secure 

when reestablished. 

(Trom a letter icritteu by Dr. Arthur Hoffman as 
head of the Political Department of the Division 
of I'oreiijn Affairs, to the Hon. Theodore Marburg. 
Chairman of the Comfnittee on Foreign Organiza- 
tion of the League to Enforce Peace: dated Heme, 
Deicmhrr ii 1016) 



I 



THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT 

His Majesty's Ciovcrnnienl is following with keen sym- 
pathy tlie idea of estaljHshing, after the end of the present 
war, an international league for the purpose of preventing 
the peace of the world being again disturlKMi, and when the 
opportunity of doing so arrives, with a j^uarantee of success, 
will lend its concourse to the realization of such a humani- 
tarian and lofty project. 

(--/ cablegram from Don Amalio Gimeno. Minister 
of Foreign Affairs, to the League /<' Fufor^.- /'.m, «• 
dated Madrid. January /?. 79/7) 



\'ote: \iscount Motono. Iaj)anese Minister for Foreign 
AtTairs (January 15. 1917 1 and \iscount Ishii. Japanese 
Ambassador K.xtraordinary to the United States (August 
30, H)!/) have e.xpressed themselves as in sympathy with 
the moNcment for a League of Nations. 



1 



A SELECTED LIST OF BOOKS ON 
A LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

ANGELL, Norman. America and the New World State. New 
York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 151 5. 295 pp., $1.25. 

ASHBEE, Charles Robert. The American League to Enforce 
Peace. London, Allen & Unwin, 1917. 92 pp., $1. 

BEER, George Louis. The English-Speaking Peoples. New 
York, The Macmillan Co., 1917. 311 pp., $1.50. 

BRAILSFORD, Henry Noel. A League of Nations. New 
York, The Macmillan Co., 1917. 332 pp., $1.75. 

BUXTON, Charles Roden, et al. Towards a Lasting Settle- 
ment. New York, The Macmillan Co., 1916. 216 pp., $1. 

COLLIN, Christen. The War Against War and the Enforce- 
ment of Peace. New York, The Macmillan Co., 1917. 163 
pp., 80 cents. 

COSMOS. Basis of Durable Peace. New York, Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sons, 1917. 144 pp., 30 cents. 

DICKINSON, G. Lowes. The Choice Before Us. New York, 
Dodd Mead & Co., 1917. 268 pp., $2. 

FAYLE, C. Ernest. The Great Settlement. New York, Duf- 
field & Co., 191 5. 309 pp., $2. 

GIBBONS, Herbert Adams. The Nezv Map of Europe. New 
York, The Century Co., 1914. 412 pp., $2. 

GOLDSMITH, Robert. A League to Enforce Peace. New 
York, The Macmillan Co., 1917. 255 pp., $1.50 (paper, 
50 cents). 

HARRIS, H. Wilson. President Wilson. New York. Freder- 
ick A. Stokes Co., 1917. 278 pp., $1.75. 

HERRON, George D. Woodrozv Wilson and the World's Peace. 
New York, Mitchell Kennerley, 1917. 173 pp., $1.25. 

HILL, David Jayne. The Re-building of Europe. New York, 
The Century Co., 191 7. 282 pp., $1.50. 

HOB SON, John A. Tozvards International Government. New 
York, The Macmillan Co., 1915. 216 pp., $1. 

63 



lUbliograpluj 



HU(iINS, koLANi). The Possible Peace. New York. The Cen- ^% 

tury Co., 1916. 189 pp., $1.25. ^B 

KEWEDY, Sinclair. The Pan-Angles. Xcw York, Ijong- ^" 

mans Green & Co., 1914. 235 pp.. $1.75. 
LIPPMAX.\. Walter. The Stakes of Diplomacy. New York. 

Henry Ilolt & Co., 1915. 235 pp., $1.35 (paper. 60 cents). 
M.\knCR(i, TiiEoiK)RE. League of Sations: A Chapter in the 

History of the Movement.^ Sew York, The Macmillan Co., 

>9i7- 139 pp. 50 cents. 
ICIR, Kam.say. Xationalism and Internationalism. Boston, 

Houghton Mifflin Co., 1917. 229 pp., $1.25. 
.N.M'MAN.V. I-KiKDkicn. Central liurope. New York, .\lfred 

.\. Knopf, 1917. 345 pp.. $3. 
PIHLIJP.S, Walter Ali.so.v. The Confederation of Europe. 

Sew York, Longmans Green & Co., 19 14. 229 pp.. $2.50. 
I'Hn.LH'SON, CoLEMA.v. Termination of War and Treaties 

of Peace. New York, K. P. Dutton & Co., 1916. 454 pp., $7. 
POWKK.S. \\. \\. The Things Men Pight Por. New York, 

The .Macmillan Co., 1916. 7^\<2 pp.. $1.50. 
KL'SSKLL, Bektkanu. Why Men Pight. New York, The Cen- 
tury Co., 1917. 272 pp., $1.50. 
SHORT, William H. Program and Policies of the League to 

Pn force Peace. New York, League to Enforce Peace, 19 17. 

48 pp., free. 
STKLXMI'.TZ, Charles I*. .-Imerica and the Xew Epoch. New 

York, HarfK-r & Bros., 1916. 228 pp., $1. 
rOYNBLK, .\rnold J. Xationatity and the War. New York, 

E. P. Dutlfm & Co., 191 5. 522 pp., $2.50. 
1 ROTTKR. W. Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War. New 

York, The NLicmillan Co., 191 5. 213 pp., $1.25. 
VEBLEN, TiioRSTEi.N B. An Inquiry into the Xature of Peace. 

•New York. The Macmillan Co., 191 7. 367 pp., $2. 
WELLS, H. Ci. H'hat is Coming f A European Forecast. New 

York, The Macmillan Co.. 1916. 2t^4 pp.. $1.50. 
WI'.YL, Waiter E. American World Policies. .New York, 

The Macmillan Co., 1917. 295 pp., $2.25. 
WdOLF, Leo.vard S. (a.sd Fabian Society). International 

Gozernment. Njw York. Brcntano's, 1916. 412 pp.. $2. 



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